It wasn’t easy to fail to save the universe

When “Stuart Fails to Save The Universe” (shown here) debuts Thursday (July 23), it will bring all sorts of TV milestones.
This is the third spin-off of “The Big Bang Theory” … and the second to skip using a studio audience … and the first to have an alternate-world, apocalyptic, science-fiction concept.
The show (on HBO Max) has Stuart find a portal in his comic-book store. It’s the sort of notion the “Big Bang” guys might savor. “This is the kind of show that they would watch and argue about,” said producer Bill Prady.
But there’s one thing more that makes “Stuart” unique: It’s accompanied by strong praise for David Zaslav. Really.
Zaslav’s Discovery networks made a fortune with unscripted shows. He bought Warner Brothers and now is selling everything to Paramount. Hollywood people see him as the enemy of scripted show business; Chuck Lorre, producer of the “Big Bang” shows, begs to differ.
“David Zaslav was a huge supporter of this, right out of the gate,” Lorre said.
For decades, Lorre has given Warner Brothers comedy hits — “Mom,” “Mike & Molly,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Bob (Hearts) Abishola,” “Big Bang” and more. In the final years of “Big Bang,” he had this fresh notion.
“I had this idea that in the comic-book store, there was a portal to other universes,” Lorre said. “I’ve always wanted to work in a bigger genre, … with visual effects and computer graphic and all the things that you can do.”
Two other spin-offs, “Young Sheldon” and “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” have thrived, but this idea kept being rejected.
“You get accustomed to failure,” Lorre said. There wasn’t even a script request. “No one wanted us to write anything.”
And then? “The company gets sold three, four times and someone comes along and says, ‘Do that!'”
That was Zaslav; “Stuart” finally had a go-ahead.
Lorre had discussed the idea briefly with Kevin Sussman, who played Stuart on “Big Bang.” The two even had a meeting once, during the pandemic. “Then I didn’t hear from (him) for months and months,” Sussman said. “I became convinced that I had imagined it.”
After Zaslav’s go-ahead, the idea gelled. Stuart (shown here, front) would enter the portal with his girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus) and their odd friends Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie, left) and Bert Kibbler (Brian Posehn, right)Fail.
Heading to alternate universes, they bring their own perspectives. Propelled through a portal, for instance, they try playing 20 Questions.
“There’s a point when you’re plummeting through time and space, where you are going to have to kill time,” Bowie said.
Posehn agreed. “It works when you’re on a road trip with the folks.”
Ultimately, they try to save the world. The title — “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” — tells us how that goes.
“It’s kind of wonderful to title the show with the spoiler,” Lorre said.
Added Bowie: “‘Death of a Salesman’ works the same way.”